If you would have told me that the Dodgers would go 1-6 at Dodger Stadium against two of the weakest teams in the National League, I would have said you were nuts – especially with three-time Cy Young award winner and 2014 NL MVP Clayton Kershaw pitching two of those seven games and with the team coming off a successful 4-2 road trip to Atlanta and Colorado.

Not only did the Dodgers lose six in a row before Kershaw finally stopped the bleeding a week ago Sunday, they hit a combined .167 with only four home runs in the process. But the absolute killer was their horrific 3 for 39 (.077) batting average with runners in scoring position while stranding 45 men on base.

Thankfully, the other four teams in the NL West did equally as bad that week and somehow the Dodgers managed to leave town on their first interleague road trip of the season in a three-way tie for first place with the Giants and Diamondbacks with a paltry 13-13 overall record – the worst division-leading record in the MLB.

Ironically, one of the Dodgers hottest hitters right now also happens to be their best pitcher. Kershaw is 3 for 5 (.600) with two RBIs in his last two (non-interleague) games. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Even with their win last Sunday in which Kershaw was once again brilliant, allowing no runs and only three hits while striking out 14 and walking none in his first complete game shutout of the season, the Dodgers still only managed to get only three hits – one of them a Kershaw RBI single for the game’s only run. And though the Dodgers return home from their brief just-concluded five-game road trip having taken one of two from the Tampa Bay Rays and two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays, they still only hit a collective .261 away from Dodger Stadium with five home runs (three by Joc Pederson) and were 10 for 41 (.244) with RISP while stranding 44. They also struck out a combined 44 times, including five each by Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig and nine by Pederson.

And that’s the good news.

The bad news is that beginning tonight, the Dodgers face the New York Mets for four games and the St. Louis Cardinals for three games before hosting the Angels for two games in what amounts to their second longest homestand of the season. (They have a 10-game homestand in July and another nine-game homestand in August but there is an off day in the middle of it). And while the Dodgers were but one mental error away from beating the Mets in the 2015 NLDS, they are currently in first place in the NL East with an 18-11 record. And as we all know, the Dodgers always have trouble with the Cardinals – home or away; this in spite of the fact that they are currently 16-16 on the season and in third place in the NL Central.

The one guy who appears to finally be coming out of his slump is Howie Kendrick, who was 7 for 20 (.350) on the just-concluded road trip. Kendrick raised his batting average from .143 to .197 over the past five games. (Photo courtesy of @SportsNetLA)

The bottom line is that if the Dodgers do not find their collective bats soon, especially with runners in scoring position, they could find themselves in a very unpleasant position in the NL West standings when they leave town again on May 17.

Stay tuned…